A remedy for traffic congestion along U.S. 280 is
needed promptly, and that solution should incorporate public
transportation, transit officials agreed Wednesday.

The
Birmingham-Jefferson County Tran­sit Authority joined a list of area
municipali­ties and agencies in passing resolutions ad­dressing
traffic along the state's busiest corridor.

"First and foremost
we feel that any plan should include some component of mass transit.
Look at our history; we cannot build our way out of this issue," said
BJCTA Chairman Guin Robinson. "This is too im­portant not to get it right." ALDOT's
plan is to build five miles of el­evated highway from Eagle Point
Parkway in Shelby County to Interstate 459, and then a series of
interchanges to allow express lanes to continue to the Elton B. Stephens
Expressway.

The transit authority's resolution also
en­courages all the municipalities affected by U.S. 280 to participate in planning and work toward a
consensus.

"I recognize you're not going to have a unani­mous
decision about what to do about 280, but there's been more ques­tions
than answers," Rob­inson said. In March, ALDOT an­nounced it would stop work on the
U.S. 280 pro­ject unless a consensus was reached among af­fected
cities. State officials have said they remain open to discussing the project.

Several cities -- Chelsea, Westover,
Hoover and Vestavia Hills -- have passed resolutions urging ALDOT to
pursue plans for improving U.S. 280 traffic. Birmingham officials last
month expressed major concerns the plan but stopped short of opposing
the state plan. Homewood passed a stronger resolu­tion against the current proposal.

Board member Frank Galloway was the only no vote against the
resolu­tion. Galloway said he's heard talk of plans and money spent for
plans over the years, but no real action to alleviate the problem.